When one architect tells another his building is "interesting," it's a compliment.

"Pretty" and similar remarks are too subjective, but "interesting" is what architect George Jessop, who chairs the Hyannis Main Street Waterfront Historic District Commission, called architect Jack Glassman's design for a new visitor center and dockmaster's office at Bismore Park on the inner harbor.

Glassman, senior associate with Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc., of Boston, displayed photos of historic waterfront structures ranging from private homes to Coast Guard stations in order to reveal the influences at play in his design. "We're not trying to make a detailed replication," he said, "but to evoke these styles."

A key element in the plan is not manmade. Thanks to Tree Warden Charlie Genatassio speaking up, a giant elm at the southwest corner of the park will be preserved, necessitating moving the building farther north.

That, in turn, means the artists shanties nearby will be relocated to Aselton Park.

Variety is the spice of the new structure, which the town hopes to open by July 1 of next year. Its bold red roof draws the eye, and the views from the broad second-floor deck promise a new experience for park visitors.

The wide steps leading up to the first floor from the harbor can do double duty as stadium seating for performances or as a gazing point out to the water (the building is elevated to allow storm surges to pass beneath it).

Members of the commission said it was likely the building, which will also serve the important if mundane purpose of providing modern restrooms, will become among the most photographed structures on the Cape.

A beacon tower, some said, will vie with Cape Cod Hospital and the steeple of Federated Church of Hyannis as landmarks for mariners.

"It's a lot more open than the earlier designs," Jessop said. "It really does have a much more vertical emphasis and a lighter sense. It has a very strong waterfront character to it."